Centerville, Iowa.
Typical home $77,149 (-14.8% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$77 (+23%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $13,383 -15%
- $90,532$77,149 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $27,976 -27%
- $105,125$77,149 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Centerville$405
- Iowa$1,242
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Centerville, IA fell 14.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Centerville, Appanoose County, Iowa
Centerville is a city of 5,412 people in Appanoose County. Half its households earn more than $46,563 a year and half less, against $54,934 across Appanoose County; 21% of its people live below the poverty line. 56% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 44% are rented. Unemployment in Appanoose County was 4.3% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Centerville is a small city and the seat of Appanoose County in southern Iowa. Residents are somewhat older than in many places, incomes run below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than most would expect in a town this size. A modest majority of homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values are low. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and winters are cold, with a fair amount of snow and a fair amount of rain through the year, while summers turn warm.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, transport and warehousing, and the building trades close behind. Among the largest workplaces in Centerville are AMCOR Flexibles North America, the Centerville Comm School District and Greif. Jobs across the county have slipped a little over the past year, and unemployment in the county is about where it was a year earlier. The typical commute is short, and few people work from home.
Things to do. Rathbun Lake, a reservoir, and Honey Creek State Park, a protected area, are both a short drive away and are the closest places for boating, fishing and time outdoors. Farther out, a longer drive takes you to Lake Wapello State Park, another protected area built around a lake. The Airpower Museum is also a longer drive away, for those who prefer an indoor outing.
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- 2,474households
- 17%of adults have a degree
- 21%below the poverty line
- 14 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Appanoose County had 4,522 jobs in 2025, 2.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 33° and lows near 12°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 63°. About 22 inches of snow and 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Centerville weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Centerville
- AMCOR Flexibles North AmericaFlexible packaging, plastics film, manufacturing223
- Centerville Comm School DistrictSchool district197FTE
- Greif (Centerville)Septic tanks, plastics or fiberglass, manufacturing180
- Wells Vehicle ElectronicsCoils, ignition, internal combustion engines, manufacturing166
- Iowa Steel & WireConcrete reinforcing mesh made from purchased wire86
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores84
- Fareway Stores, Inc. 827 CentervilleGrocery stores72
- Care Initiatives46
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 10 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 948 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- TornadoesVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Centerville’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Appanoose County.
Centerville home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Centerville$77,149
- Iowa$236,623
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Centerville listings — the market is heating up.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Centerville20.89%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Centerville43
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Centerville10
Zip codes with a Centerville address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Centerville — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.